Busy x 10

This new job has me running ragged. It's invigorating but also quite exhausting. Schedule for the next few days:

1. Today: Fly to Maine from Cleveland...total of about 5ish hours with all the stops etc.
2. Land in Maine at 10:30 p.m.
3. Fly home (hour and a half drive), collapse into bed.
4. Friday: Up in the morning to drive to Rob's parents' house (four hour drive) to see my Robbie and my vicious beast.
5. Saturday: Leave my Robbie and go visit my whole fam damily (45 minute drive).
6. Saturday evening: book it back home (four hour drive), do some work, sleep.
7. Sunday: Get up and drive the hour and a half back to the airport to go to Cleveland.

This is seriously more driving in a four-day period than I've EVER driven. FACT.

I'm having fun with the job so far, though, and I really like my coworkers. It's just hard being away from Rob all over again...Everytime I call him I'll say things like, "Don't worry, even though I'm traveling I still love you and I don't want this to break us apart."

Too bad I forgot that this is what I always wanted to hear when he was gone, and he doesn't need to hear it because he KNOWS everything will be okay. So his response is usually along the lines of, "Yep, I know. I love you. Oh, I went to shoot my rifle today..."

I am a huuuuge fan of my soon-to-be husband.

Winner(s)!

Sooooooooooooo without further ado, winner #1 of the giveaway:

THE MRS.!

Runner up (who will get to choose two items of the four left over after Mrs. chooses) is...

REBECCA from [Almost] A Designer!

Congrats!!

To the Mrs.: Send me your choices to prettyyoumaybe [at] gmail [dot] com...shall I remind you that you owe me an email ANYWAY! :)

To Rebecca: After Mrs. has chosen I'll get in touch with you to let you know of the remaining choices.

Thanks for participating everyone, I'll have to do this again! :)

Goodbyes.

Don't forget the giveaway two posts down...tomorrow is the last day! I'll be traveling until around 4-ish Eastern Time, plus some other stuff for work so I might not get to it until later in the evening. Keep your eyes peeled. :-)

I'm traveling for work this week and next week...and maybe the next. It's amazing but after four years of Army, including 14 total months of separation during the deployment, saying goodbye to Rob for four days was absolutely heartwrenching. I actually started to CRY when he left. WTF? Shouldn't this be NOTHING to us? When Rob saw me cry he said, "Well this is your Army PTSD I guess."

I know I shouldn't complain because many of my readers are either dealing with or facing a deployment. I'm sure you all understand where I'm coming from, though.

Well good luck on the giveaway, make sure you enter if you haven't and add a link to me from your blog! :-)

Another Giveaway from The Mrs.!

To get myself a second entry, I'm posting a link to The Mrs.'s blog giveaway!

Click me, dammit!

Does this count, Mrs.?

And don't forget to check out my giveaway below, and feel free to add a link to it on your blog(s)!

Giveaway!

So here it is, my first giveaway.

Up for grabs: some bath/body products made right here in Western Maine! I won these in a silent auction to benefit the local community health organization and the nearby hospital's breast cancer center.

If you win the giveaway, you have your choice of 3 of the following:

1. Small lotion - Tangerine Spice
2. Small lotion - Apple Blossom
3. Small lotion - Angel Type
4. Large lotion - Orange
5. Body Mist - Hyacinth
6. Bar of soap - Fresh Linen
7. Bar of soap - Sandalwood

Just so you are aware, if you prefer strong-smelling bath/body products, these probably aren't for you. The smell is very, very subtle, though definitely still present. :)

To enter, you have to leave me a comment to let me know you are entering, and add a verse of your favorite poem or a favorite quote.

Giveaway ends on Monday, July 27, so get cracking! :)

Gauging Interest...

Hypothetically speaking, if a certain short-haired bespectacled pseudo-bloggeress was to hold, say, a giveaway, that hypothetically included some Maine-made soaps, lotions, body washes, etc...would there, hypothetically, be any interest?

On Honesty, Blogs, and Sofas

I was recently contemplating the psychology of honesty.

I’ve come across blog posts—and, indeed, have written my own—that ask for an “honest opinion” from their readers. I don’t know about the rest of you, but if I ask for an honest opinion on something like a blog post, I really want validation, pure and simple. I want to hear that my idea/situation/opinion is the best one EVER. If I read a comment that offers a side that I don’t really want to hear, I find myself feeling a wee bit put off, even while recognizing full well that I asked for an honest opinion. I’m admittedly an insecure girl and I like to be validated and feel justified in what I do. If I want an honest opinion, I’ll go to my mother, who is full of them, or Rob, who has a knack for telling me exactly what he thinks without sugar-coating it.

I’m not saying in any way that asking for honest opinions on your blog is a bad thing or that everyone craves validation like I do. Rather, I’m interested in the psychology of all of this and how you as fellow bloggers (blogesses?) feel about it.

I want your REAL honest opinions on this…do NOT worry about validating me. You know I mean it because I used RANDOM CAPITALIZATION. FER REALS.

Does anyone else do this, or do you really want honest opinions? Am I insane? Is it any different to ask for an honest opinion on your blog than it is in person? Is it easier to ask faceless people what they think?

Anyway, on to ridiculously exciting things…

Like our new COUCH!

I can’t tell you how EXCITING this was for me (and to a lesser extent, my darling fiancé). In May 2008, we bought a futon from Walmart so that we could have something for people to sit on when we entertain (which, admittedly, is rare). We put it together and were at least marginally happy with it until about six months ago. Turns out Walmart makes the cushions with a whopping one inch of polyurethane foam and the rest is COTTON BATTING. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the extremely complex physical characteristics of cotton batting, it gets flat. Annoyingly so. The futon structure is metal, so every time I sat on it I felt like the metal bars, hardly kept at bay by the paper towel-thin mattress, were doing their very best to go straight up my ass. My back (and ass) actually ACHED after sitting on it.

And before you ask, yes, I just spent a whole paragraph talking about my futon.

Anyway I mosied on over to the local (and ONLY) furniture store and found a lovely microfiber dark-brown couch for only $400. The cushions are all stuffed with foam so they’re at least somewhat more durable (and hopefully un “flat”-able). My only complaint is that the cushions are still somewhat stiff, which I’m hoping will be rectified by sitting my now happy ass, not to mention the respective asses of my fiance and my beast, down on them as much as possible.